


Legolas and Robin

by sagaluthien



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, Original Work
Genre: Crossover, Other, universe!Missne
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-10
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2017-10-29 08:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 13,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagaluthien/pseuds/sagaluthien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin falls one day into Middle Earth, where she meets and become friends with an elf that appear to be the opposite sex to what yourself is. The gate between the worlds is open because there are some evil creatures that try it’s best to take over. The hope stands to Robin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Some, or most of the chapters can be quite short, but the whole story is complete and I will try to post as often as possible.

Introduction:  
It is summer and Robin has come with her parents to their summer house - an old soldier cottage. She is twelve years old and she thinks that she has grown from her childhoods games. It is time to get changed. So one evening she went out to the big forest behind the cottage.  
Walking there she is thinking of ghost, faires, suddenly she fell and discover a different world.

 

Chapter 1/49  
The wicket gate opened easily. An Owl hollered, not far away. She closed the gate. The moonlight fell on a rocky outcrop, casting pale light on the moss that covered it, and flickered through a pair of aspen. She turned into the road and followed it for a bit along the high pine trees, that grow in the edge of the forest. She didn’t dare to walk further than to the first forest glade, because beyond it the forest much thicker.

Over the grass was a light fog, which made her think of fairies. A night like this, you had to believe in them. She wondered if the fairies and ghosts get on well together. For a moment in her mind she saw the face of Jesus from the church and she shivered. Ordinarily she would pray to God to protect her from ghost but this time, she does not pray.

In the middle of the glade she stopped and picked up the green hat and put it on. It felt like a little more safety. Then she held the little bottle up to the moonlight. It chilled her whole hand. As she took off the lid, a queasy, sour sweet smell emanated from it, and it turned her stomach around. She closed her eyes, lifted the bottle to her lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to drink. She stood there with the bottle lifted and her eyes closed, until a sudden sound from the brush made her twitch. She took a step to begin to run, but tripped on a tuft and fell head first, in the wet grass. Now it had happened. She had known it would happen sometime. One day, the spirits would find her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any notes and so see first chapter.

2/49  
She wished that the spirits would keep their cold fingers away from her. The wet from the grass went through her trousers, but she didn’t dare to rise. She kept her eyes tightly closed and crouches together. Then she felt or heard the sound of wing stroke and understood it was a bird that flew. Nothing touched her. She opened her eyes and thought it was brighter than before. The moonlight was stronger and the shadows were hazy blue. Was it because she had had her eyes closed? The bottle lay in the grass and the contents were spilt. Though it was like a change had taken place; not in her, but around her. She saw further through the trees.

“Are you looking for something?” called a voice.

The fear went through Robins body. She had barley escaped. Now she would die of fear; it would say ‘click’ in her and she would go crazy. She closed her eyes again and couldn’t move. The movement of very light footsteps was heard behind her.

“Please, don’t touch me” she said. “Do what ever you want, but don’t touch me!”

“I have not any of those intentions,” said the voice. It was low-voiced, neither dark nor light. It lacked the tension that most voices have. Now it sounded almost amusing. Robin felt less scared but still held her eyes closed.

“If you looking for a little bottle, it is laying right in front of you. You will see it if you open your eyes.”

The patter of feet came closer and stopped right in front of her.

“Shall I give it to you?” said the voice.

“No, no!” She open her eyes. Standing in front of her was a green clad being, a little taller than her. It looked like to be a boy, but she couldn’t be sure. The thing that struck her the most was the way his face glimmered, ghost-like in the moonlight. The hair was blond, straight and reached a little below the shoulders. She smelled a faint, fresh scent when the figure bent down and picked up the bottle.

“Shall I help you up?” he asked, and now the voice sounded tantalizing.

“Absolutely not.” She managed to rise. He hold the bottle to her, and she looked at his hand, which was very like her own, only lighter and a little glimmering.

“You can throw it away,” she said. “It’s empty anyway.”

He looked annoyed; the eyes seemed to darken.

“You don’t throw things in Greenwood,” he said. “Take it.”

She took it and nudged one of his fingers. It was a quick, cool touch. She was almost not scared anymore.

“Who are you?” she asked and hoped he wouldn’t be offended.


	3. Chapter 3

3/49  
“Who are you?” he countered.

She hesitated. “My name is Robin.” She answered. “Robin Hood. What’s your name?”

He wrinkled his eyebrows again. “I do not tell strangers my name.”

She was about to say ‘don’t then’, but stopped herself, as it was unnecessary to provoke him more. There was a question, she couldn’t avoid asking: “Are _you_ a ‘ghost’?

“What did you say?” Now he was amused again. “If you were not so stupid, I would be mad at you that can not recognize a woodelf when you see one. Are _you_ a ‘ghost’?”

“Of course not. I’m a human.”

“Yes, of course you are. You are a scared little human girl.” He smiled.

“And you are a cocky little elfboy” she said trying. She always got extra refractory when she was uncertain.

“Boy?” he said. “No, I am older than that. And I am not he or her.”

“Is that possible?” she couldn’t hold herself from laughing. “I think you are a he.”

“That is because you are a she” he said. “Women usually think I am a man. Men usual think I am a woman. It is for the best.”

“How come?”

“That way everyone can fall in love with me. And that is how it shall be. But I thought you, who are a child, would see me as I am.”

“I’m not a child.” She drew her hat further down over her ears. Now she felt that the clothes were wet. “By the way I need to head back to the house.”

“House?”

“Yes, the cottage. I need to go to bed and sleep.”

“Sleep?” he looked very surprised. “Are you a sleeper? But you do not look wise.”

“I had an A in Swedish and English and drawing, even if I’m bad in math” she said angrily.

He looked even more surprised. “A? I do not understand. But that you are not a sleeper I can see with my big toe. You tell fibs.”

“I don’t understand either.” She says. “What is a sleeper?”

He gave her a hopeless glance. “It is the sleeper that sleeps. When he sleeps he dreams, and when he wakes up he knows the answer to the question you asked before he fell asleep. How long he sleep depends on how difficult the question is. Fifty years ago we asked him how we would fight the marshy ghost, and he has not yet woken up.” His eyes were worried.

Robin wanted to ask what he meant with ‘we’ and what marshy ghosts were, but didn’t dare. She was curious, but soon she would need to head home, so her parents didn’t get worry. Peculiarly it hadn’t gotten much darker.

“Why doesn’t it get dark?” she asked and realized she had asked something again.

“In Greenwood it never gets so dark.” he said. “Do you want to follow me and see how I live?” he smiled. The smile was quick as a glitter on a surface on water.

Robin looked into the woods. She knew it was big, that she might never find her way out if she get lost. She wondered how long you could live on rots. Could you eat forest growth? What did a woodelf eat?

“Ah, Robin” he said. “Sure you will come with me.”

The name had a magic sound in her ears. She got little braver. Robin Hood didn’t get lost in the forest.

“I follow you if you tell me your name.” she said.

“You can call me Greenwood.”

“Then it is your forest!”

“You might say that. And now that I have told you my name, you have no choice but to come. Be silent, if you can, and creep carefully, so the grey spirits do not hear us. Come.”


	4. Chapter 4

4/49   
He started walking toward the trees. She had believed he would walk the road, but it was probably nothing dangerous, as long she was close to him.

Deeper in the wood the spruce was wider and dark. You could see the moss and high grass everywhere. Large stone block’s lay close to each other like they were speaking to each other. Maybe they lived their own slow life and spoke so slowly, so their voices were like a muffled wind. Between them the moonlight glimmered in deep water holes. Robin didn’t dare to say anything though Greenwood walked too fast and her trousers were drenched.

Suddenly he stopped and came very close to her. “Now we need to take a circuitous route” he said. “We are close to Lô na dûr.”

They crawled in between two spruces and followed a path which was crossed by elk footsteps. Robin was afraid of the elk but didn’t say anything. After some time the trees became fewer and they stepped into a glade which Robin thought she recognized. In front of her lay the deep fen that she thought her mother and she had accidentally found when they were out picking mushrooms, but never found again. She remembered it had looked bewitched. In the blue and silver light that was over the place it was almost terrible beautiful, like it was hard to breathe. A light fog was lying over the water. The trees looked as if they were there to watch over this place, like the heart of the woods was here. It felt like it was here and nowhere else she had longed for. The fact that she was lost didn’t matter.

“We have reached our target, Robin.” said Greenwood.

Robin was silent and just looked over the water. She wanted to sink down in the wet grass and just sleep in the blue glade. Greenwood watched her, and if she had looked at him she would have seen an odd glimmer in his eyes. Greenwood’s eyes had changed to dark blue, and now he looked steady on her.

“No-oo, you are not wise,” he said. “Then you would have not come into the woods.” His voice was silent as the wind through autumn grass. “You never know what things are out in the night, for during the night things change. The night has many creatures and not all are nice.”

“You talk about the Manulô.”

“I am talking about the Manulô and Thind mân and the man in the moon with his gown and those that are ages and the creatures with many shapes, I mean the Tôgneitha and the Madrhaw, those that make your heart feel like ice, Hrávemat. But most I mean Calla Palustris.”

Even if she didn’t understand half of the things he told her about Robin shuddered and thought he had grown beside her. He didn’t look like a boy any more; he looked ancient, like the oldest trees.

“Who are Calla Palustris?” she whispered.

“Don’t you know that little human? Calla Palustris isn’t big and does not look dangerous, but is the most dangerous of them all.”

“What does he look like?” asked Robin.

“Similar to me. Yes, similar to me. Exactly like me.”

 

\---

Translation of some of the words;  
Manulô – Marshy ghost  
Thind mân – Grey spirit  
Tôgneitha – Misleader [vilseförarna]  
Madrhaw – consumer [förtärarna]  
Hrávemat – Eaters [hungrare]


	5. Chapter 5

It was silent around the fen, and the trees had croweded closer together. Greenwood smiled. She looked direct into his eyes and they were dark and glimmered liked the fen’s water.

“You wanted to see how I lived, Robin. Come with me.”

He took her hand and went to the fens. Without letting go of her hand he went out into the water, just a little bit. It wasn’t bottomless and tufts were seen under the surface and further out there wasn’t a bottom to be seen and the moonlight stopped at the surface, unwilling to fight such a big darkness.

“At the other shore I have a hall of silver,” Greenwood said. “I have horses and gardens and a colonnade, where the songs never stop to sound. There reaches not ghost nor Hrávemat, and there the time stands still. Come, Robin my lovely friend. There will no evil reach you. Come.”

She tried to look in another direction, but he held her gaze to his. 

“Robin” he said and reached his other hand to her. She wanted to follow him walking through the fen to where she would see silver and blooming gardens until the way behind her became black. But somewhere inside she knew that she shouldn’t give into temptation. She stood just at the edge to the fen, and the water slowly tasted the toes of her boots. It was freezing. Greenwood’s eyes turned darker.

“I thought you were my friend, Robin,” he said. “I let you know one of my names. You are mine now.”

He waited a moment and then smiled. “You will not find the way out,” he added. “If you try, you will get lost and die. The Hrávemat will find you. Linneor and moss will grow over your bones. 

Robin closed her eyes and took a step forward. The water closed eagerly around her foot.

Then a high and clear woman’s voice come behind them: “Calla Palustris, damned creature! At the sleepers breath release the human child!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of some of the words;  
> Manulô – Marshy ghost  
> Thind mân – Grey spirit  
> Tôgneitha – Misleader [vilseförarna]  
> Madrhaw – consumer [förtärarna]  
> Hrávemat – Eaters [hungrare]


	6. Chapter 6

Greenwood’s eyes lost their dark glimmer. With barely an audible hiss he turned around, and with particular ease found the way through the fen to the other side and vanished. Robin stood a moment perfectly still and saw how the circles moved over the surface. Her foot felt numb from the cold.

“There I would not linger.” said the clear voice. Robin took a step back and turned her head. A light woman’s shape stood between her and the dark wall of trees. Her hair was long, white and glimmering. It fell over her slender shoulders and reached down to her hips. She looked very nice, though no matter how Robin tried to look closely at the woman, she was held in a light haze like a figure in a blurred photo. Her dress was simply cut and light blue, and her feet didn’t bear any shoes.

“I am Galadriel.” she said. “Follow me and forget what you have lived the last hour.” she smiled kindly.

Robin was a little suspicious and she didn’t understand all that the woman said, but she hadn’t any choice. If she went alone, she would only get lost.

“Where is it I live?” asked Galadriel and came closer. Her walk was flowing and totally soundless.

“I don’t understand,” said Robin and felt very abandoned and small. She came to think of her parents, who probably were worried sick. Only hoping they didn’t go out and search and get lost too. She was near to tears.

“I am sorry,” said Galadriel, who now stood in front of Robin. The haze surrounded her body, so you couldn’t see her any sharper even at a close distance. “I am not… from this time or of this world. But I can speak as you, if you want. Would you tell me where you are headed?”

“Home.” said Robin and started crying. She felt Galadriel’s soft hair against her cheek and her arm around her shoulders.

“Come!” said the woman. “Save your tears. Where is your home?”

“The cottage” She didn’t care that Galadriel touched her. Right now she only wanted to get home.

“What cottage?” asked Galadriel.

“The soldier cottage. The old soldier cottage.”

Galadriel lifted the arm from her shoulder. “There I can not lead you. I can show you the way, but I do not wish to see the cottage,” she looked so sad that Robin forgot her own troubles. Something told her she shouldn’t ask why Galadriel was sad. She had already asked too many questions tonight.

“Let us walk,” said Galadriel, and they left the glade. Robin didn’t turn around, but thought she heard some splashing and an almost imperceptible voice that said; “Robin, Robin”, though it could have been the wind in the trees.

“Why did he want me bring me over the fen?” she wondered. “I thought we were friends.”


	7. Chapter 7

“He is not evil.” said Galadriel. “He can be good and gentle. But he is half Edhellô[1], what would you call it… yes a fen elf. And when he is near water, he’s filled with a craving to bring somebody with him. Otherwise he can be a faithful friend.” She was silent for a moment, and it looked like she started thinking of something sad. “Friends sometimes do bad things, if there is a big craving in them. He was not able to resist.” 

“I don’t understand.” Robin shivered in her wet cloths.

Galadriel twitched. It was like she had been far away in her thoughts. “Even if you are happy with someone, it can happen that you want to hurt the one you love,” she spoke slowly. “Then you have to be strong to not give in to that feeling. Has that never happened to you?” Galadriel watched her. Robin didn’t say anything, but now she trusted Galadriel because what she said was true. So many times that Robin had hated Maria and wanted to hurt her. 

“That is what it can feel like,” said Galadriel. “And most everyone feels it sometimes. But for some, they find it hard to stand up against their dark side, and then they do bad things.”

“Like Greenwood,” said Robin angry.

“No, not like Greenwood,” she put her arm around Robin again. “I have a friend, who comes from where you come from. He is a bird-watcher and a very wise man. He says Greenwood has instincts which make him to want bring down people. It is his part of Edhellô that makes him into a half animal and gives him such instincts.”

“What is ‘instincts’?”

“That is something that makes you do special things. When birds move in the autumn, they follow their instincts. When the frogs lay their eggs in the water, they follow their instincts.” They stepped out from between two spruces that hid the path to the fen.

“And Greenwood follows his instincts when he tried to drown me. Okay,” Robin sighed and looked worriedly around her. “He said this was his forest. Greenwood’s forest, he said.”

“Oh no, no one owns the forest, except for the ents, or the Manulô[2], for the moment,” she sounded dejected. “But let us not speak about them, because then they will find us easier. If only the sleeper wanted to wake up soon.”

Robin walked silent for awhile. “What is your instinct, Galadriel?” she later asked. She spoke very low not wanting the Manulô to find them.

“Me? I am not an animal. I’m not an Edhellô. I come from a place called Valinor. I’m a Noldor, don’t you see that?” She sounded pleading.

“Noldor? What’s that? Almost a human.” said Robin. She didn’t want to ask if Galadriel was a ghost.

“It is one race of the elves. There are several different elves in the world, some might seem more like human and some are more like animals. Each one has different specialties and most of us are immortal. Though from the very first beginning we all came from the same substance, so I want to believe we are the same. The bird-watcher is a good man I think you should meet. He has told me about your time and customs. He has taught me your language and the way you speak now. Yes, he has taught me a lot. And we have the time. All time in the world.”

“So you will never die?” Robin was amazed and envious.

“I don’t know. It says there exists a darkness, where no waters run, where nothing grows and no songs sounds. There will the evil come one day, a time when the evil will begin eating the world from the inside. Hopefully that will take a long time. And I’m not evil. You do believe me, don’t you?”

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Edhellô – fenelf [tjärnalv]  
[2] Manulô – Marsh ghost


	8. Chapter 8

“Yes, I believe you." 

“Good,” Galadriel sounded very happy. “You must be tired,” she said. “I can carry you, if you want.”

Robin looked at the shimmering figure and wondered if her slender arms would be able to carry her weight.

“One thing you have to know,” said Galadriel, “and that is, the more you believe in me, the more real I will become. That is the same with Greenwood - Calla Palustris and all the others in the Middle-Earth. If you don’t believe in us, we disappear in front of your eyes. If you hadn’t believed Greenwood was real, he would have been without power. Remember that.”

“It was little hard to believe he wasn’t real when he was standing there talking with and to me.”

“Try next time. He will shrink and be small like a mushroom, and then he will disappear totally.”

“It serves him right. Besides, I do not plan to meet him again.”

“That you will do,” Galadriel's voice trembled. “Because you shall help us. We are in danger. Come, I will carry you, little one.”

A pair of strong arms picked up Robin, and she rested winding in soft, white hair reminding her of cotton grass. Galadriel seemed to float over the ground. Robin saw that she had a silver medallion around her neck; a medallion that could be opened. Robin's mother had one like it with a photo of her father.

“What do you have in your medallion?” said Robin. “The bird-watcher?”

“No, not him,” she was sad again. “But that is a long story. I will tell you that next time we meet. Look, here is the road that leads to the cottage.”

“Can’t you follow me to the meadow where I met Greenwood? There is only a short way left.”

“If you promise to come again. If not, no.”

“I promise. But how shall I do that? The forest was an ordinary forest before I fell there in the meadow. And in the ordinary forest neither you nor Greenwood live. At least I have never seen you.”

“No, we live in Middle-Earth. Few of us can walk in your reality if we wish, but then we are only seen as breeze over the grass or as shadows. We aren’t able to hurt anything in your world. Greenwood hadn’t been able to draw you down in the water against your will,” she looked along the road. “There I see a little meadow. Is it that the one you mean? I can’t walk further, as then I will see the cottage.” She slowly let Robin down to the ground.

“How shall we meet?” said Robin impatient. “How was I able to fall into your world?”

Galadriel thought. “Maybe you stepped on a tussock of hare’s foot,” she said. “As in many tales, it is said if one that steps on hare’s foot and is thinking about fairies, he would behold them.”

“But you aren’t a fairy.”

“I am not a fairy as you mean, little child. Though I am an elf and they are related, so I can be seen as a fairy. One day I wish to be recognized as the Noldor that I am,” she spoke slowly to find the right words.

“I would want to be like you,” said Robin.

“Please, you can not say so! You do not know anything about it!” Galadriel put her hands on Robin’s shoulders. “We will meet here. That you have promised. Look here, take a lock of my hair, and you will be my ward.” With strong fingers she tore off a little tuft and put it into Robin's hand, where it lay and shone like angel hair.

“Search for the hare’s foot, stamp on it and think of fairies, then you will come to Middle-Earth. Maybe the tuft of hair will help, if it doesn’t become invisible. Now I say goodbye, little one. Though first I would want to know your name.”

“Robin," she said,”. “Robin Hood. Thanks for helping me. Thank you very much.” Robin often felt uncomfortable to say thanks, but this time it didn’t feel awkward.

“Wait,” said Galadriel. “You have to think Middle-Earth away. Otherwise you disturb the balance between the worlds.”

“Will I also become invisible if I don’t think you away?” she wondered. It would be fun to walk as a shadow over the grass, let her parents tools fly in the air and move the saucepans and hats, without them seeing her.

“I know what you are thinking, and that is a forbidden thought.” Galadriel looked stern.

“I’m sorry.” Robin felt ashamed and suddenly yearned after her own bed and a hot cup of chocolate. When she looked up she noticed that Galadriel had faded. Her voice sounded distant, when she said; “You’re doing the right thing, Robin. Think about the things you love in the real world. Think of me as if I was a dream, as that is what I am; slim as a shadow, without origin or attachment. Farewell, Robin.”


	9. Chapter 9

Robin felt sorry for Galadriel, but now she only wanted to get home to her well-lit room. She thought about her bed and her mascot ‘Vitamin’, the colouring pencils, sauces sandwich, mum and dad and Maria, that she did actually like. And Galadriel turned into a small veil of mist; it shimmered in the air for a moment, a voice said: “Farwell Robin,” and began to darken around her. But it wasn’t darker then it first had been when she went into the forest. She reached the hand up in the moonlight to see the hair tuft was there. In her hand lay a little dirty cotton grass, that wasn’t far from shimmering. Anyway she put it in her pocket. Then she walked along the way until she came to the raspberry bushes, and she wasn’t afraid of the dark. 

There was light in the cottage windows and nobody seemed to be out looking for her. She closed the gate, and when she passed the outhouse she collected the flash. When she entered the hall, her mother said: “That was a short walk. Shall I make a cup of hot chocolate for you?”

“Yes, please.” She took off her boots and went into the kitchen.

“You look alert.” Said her mother, still sat leaning over her English books. “But how have you managed to get so wet! Come, let’s put the trousers in front of the fireplace. Did you fall?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t hurt yourself?”

“No.”

Robin got her cup of chocolate, two big sandwiches and a peach. It was safe and cozy in the kitchen.

“Maybe it is good for you to be alone.” Her mother said. “I wanted to be that also when I was in your age. Only do not get lost, and then it is fine. I think you don’t need to worry about the math, yet.”

Robin went to bed with a clean conscience. Under her pillow she put the hair tuft that she had saved before the trousers were put to dry.

When her mother had stopped reading English and both her parents had gone to bed, it was totally calm. Robin lay and listened to the forest and the soughing didn’t sound as dangerous any more, maybe a little dangerous, but mostly enchanting. Galadriel had told her she was her protégé, her ward. That meant she was watching over Robin. And the forest sound was like it came with a whisper, a barely heard call that made her happy. “Robin, Robin.”


	10. Chapter 10

When Robin woke the next morning she wanted to go out looking for the hare-foot. Though it didn’t seem very dignified to rush out like that and not be able to wait. It would be childish, like eating a whole chocolate bar at once as soon as you received it, or opening the Advent calendar days in advance. Although she did check to see if the tuft still was under her pillow. It was. The sun shone outside the blind and the princess on it was extra visible, but Robin didn’t care so much about her.

She lay there in her bed and thought about what had come over her to say her name was Robin Hood. She adored the Sherwood hero. She could see Robin jumping lithe as a wildcat from the trees, blowing in his horn and shooting golden arrows through a green haze. He knows every tuft in the enormous Sherwood forest, and his face bronze colored, laughing, wild, when he draws his sword and plunders road travelers.

If she could transform she would want to be Robin Hood. She thought she might love Robin Hood, but she would want to be like him. To be someone people loved would be great. Somehow it felt right to tell Greenwood and Galadriel she was Robin Hood.

When she had eaten her breakfast, washed herself and brushed her teeth, she offered to go and catch the mail that the mailman put in the box down at the Birch Avenue. The sun had disappeared again; the clouds had ganged-up together.

Maria had sent her a postcard from Italy. “I have ridden a donkey,” she wrote. “Our hotel is very big and we meet a lot of people. I have got a gold bracelet.”

Robin tried to imagine what she could written on a postcard to Maria; “I have meet a fen elf. He tried to drown me, but Galadriel saved me. She is probably a ghost but that she didn’t want to speak about.”

Anyway it would never occur to her to tell Maria – or anyone else – about the Middle Earth. Think if her mother and father and Maria’s parents and Maria’s uncle, grandfather, sister and brother and their henchman George with his wife and all his small whining children would come and put their feet on the hare-foot. She could imagine what they would do in Middle Earth. 

Maria’s father would go looking for elks to shoot, her mother would tell Greenwood to cut his hair, Maria’s brother would ask Galadriel if she wanted to come with him to the city and go to a dance restaurant with him, and Maria’s sister should complain that her high heeled shoes got wet. You could always hope that the Manulô took care of them all. Or that Greenwood drowned them. But Robin didn’t feel like introducing anyone to Greenwood; not Maria and absolutely not Maria’s sister, who was very pretty. _Maybe_ there were gardens and colonnades behind the fen.

Probably she didn’t need to worry, because no one would believe her if she told about the Wood. She almost didn’t believe it herself, she nearly believed that she had dreamt the whole thing– but then it was her own dream, that no one had anything to do with; and she would go through it again.


	11. Chapter 11

On the way back from the mail box it started to rain just like the day before, and when Robin entered the hall her mother said: “We should probably go home again; it isn’t a good idea to be here when it is raining like this.”

Robin was on the verge of tears. Go home to the city! She didn’t want to believe they were serious about it. It felt like they had just told her she was about to be put in jail. And poor Galadriel, to whom she had given her promise to come back! And Greenwood! She didn’t understand why she wanted to meet Greenwood again; maybe to see if she could dupe him.

She stayed in the hall in her wet clothes and tried not to weep. “I _don’t_ want to go home!” she shouted. “Every time when I think something is fun, you want to do something else! What will you do in the city? Is it better there, perhaps?” She went to the kitchen without taking her boots off. The tears ran down her cheeks, but they probably looked like rain. Her mother didn’t seem to notice them.

“You can’t do anything when it is raining,” said her mother sourly. “Sitting and reading English one can do it just as well at home. And it is so tight here in the cottage, we’re _right on top_ on each other.”

“Does dad think so too?”

“Yes,” her mother’s face was a little swollen. Robin thought she looked ugly.

“So you want to go home at once?” Robin wished she could hold her voice steady, but it sounded pitiful and whiny. 

“When it’s mainly dry? You can’t work in the garden or pick berries in this weather like this,” her mother looked stubborn.

Robin felt that she hated her mother at the moment, _really_ hated her, so she wanted to hurt her. Not drown her, but make her small and without power; stomp on her.

“You _said_ that we would stay for a week!” she shouted. “All you think about is work and work, but I have only a summer leave!” She went silent and they stared at each other. Her mother’s face looked even more swollen than ever.

“Do you know something?” said Robin. “You are so damn ugly, so…” she stopped speaking as she thought of what to say. She was like ice inside. “You are so bloody disgusting so you have to be lucky that someone wanted you. And that is dad too.”

“Keep quiet.” It was her father’s voice. He was standing in the doorway and looked bigger than usual. “Even if you are angry you can’t say whatever you want.”

“Are you so sure that we wanted _you_?” said her mother with a tense and weird voice. She had a strange look on her face. “You are not the nicest child someone could wish for.”

Robin understood she had said something hideous to her mum, but her mother had said something even more gruesome to her. Never, never had any of her parents said anything horrible like that to Robin. She knew there were children that were so called _unwanted_. But those she saw as faint, poor and lost. They were more at home in old nasty fairy tales than in reality. She had always thought about herself, her mother and father as a happy family. Now she wondered if they always hated her. It was totally silent in the room.


	12. Chapter 12

Then her mother said: “I’m sorry, Robin. I didn’t mean it.”

Her father stood silent in the doorway, watching them both.

“Please Robin, forgive me,” asked her mother. “Can’t we forget this? Come here so I can give you a hug, and then we’ll forget this.”

Robin didn’t say anything. Her mother looked pitiful and small; worthy of contempt. Robin had the advantage.

“What were you fighting about?” her father asked.

“Robin doesn’t want to go home.”

“But can’t we stay for a little longer,” her father smiled at her. Then her mother got angry again. “It’s not only you that decides how long we stay here!” she said. “You might not understand how it feels for me. But I can take the train home if only someone drives me to the station.”

“Don’t be silly,” said her father.

In both her parent's voices there was a chill that frightened Robin. They probably they not only thought badly about her, but they didn’t like each other either. Sure they had been pissed at each other before, but never like this. What if they started to hate each other in reality? What if they were never again a happy family?

“Robin,” her mother said again, “can’t you give mum a hug? Do you want to go out and pick wild strawberries together?” 

Then Robin went out. She passed the currant bushes, garden, bullace and the compost. The rain was heavier, but she thought she needed to be washed because she felt dirty.

She opened the garden gate and started walking to the pines. The forest smelled fresh, and the tall grass was bent and glimmering from the rain. She wondered if she would ever dare to walk home again. Maybe her parents would never let her in again.

Soon Robin saw the little meadow where she first met Greenwood. She closed her hand around the hair tuft she had in her pocket and hoped she would find the hare’s foot.


	13. Chapter 13

It wasn’t difficult since it was very clear where she had fallen the last time. A tiny tuft of grey, woolly hare’s foot grew exactly there, and she thought it was evil to stomp on it. But that couldn’t be helped. She took the hair tuft from her pocket, held it in front of her, stepped carefully on it, closed her eyes and thought about Greenwood and Galadriel.

It suddenly stopped raining and the air was warmer. When she opened her eyes she saw that the ground was dry, and a mild sunshine lay over the high grass. She moved her gaze to the heaven and saw a big, hazy sun, which you could look right into. Galadriel wasn’t there, but the tuft was white and shimmering again. Robin sat down on a stone and took her jacket off. She hoped that the jacket and her trousers would dry fast in the sunshine. If she stayed here she had to get more clothes; but how? And what do immortals eat?

When she was comfortable, she heard a song in the distance. The voice was very clear and sad, making Robin shivered. The shiver wasn’t uncomfortable and neither was the song. It just sounded very melancholy and slow.

“How I would rest and dream,  
fall to sleep,  
never drift, forgotten by everyone,  
forgot, weeping.

How I would shut my eyes and forget!  
Shadow and delusion I would remain  
Judged by all and never forgiven.

I know a turf  
Where the life will ebb  
Where clove and Elanor can’t grow  
There the little one rest   
In shelter of the mound; in peace.

The shadow dwell  
And the wind whines  
And the cloud roll  
But alas!  
The little one do not wake  
The little one in the earth in peace.  
Alas, I would be with him  
The little one in peace.”

Robin got up and walked in the direction of the song. She parted two bushes and saw Galadriel coming, surrounded in mist. The sun turned her hair into light gold, and she seemed to fly through the high grass. White high meadowsweet grew every where around her. Robin held her breath and didn’t dare speak to Galadriel, who unseeing went by her. Then she thought she could console her, so she followed her and said her name.

Galadriel turned around and smiled warmly to Robin. “You came back!” she said.

“I did promise,” said Robin

“Promises are easily broken,” Galadriel whispered

“I came because I wanted to hear your story. But why are you so sad? Is it the Manulô* that has created anything?”

“No, my little child, do not mention them. I mourn that I never get to rest. Though, with such a tale I would not torment you. You wanted me to tell you my story, let us… let us sit down somewhere.” 

They found two stones and sat down then turned towards each other. Galadriel fingered her medallion she wore around her neck.

“You might have guessed that I once lived for some time in your world. Then I lived in the cottage,” she started. “It was a very long time ago, way back in time. I had met a man; I became enchanted and fell in love with. It was so strong that I passed the barrier between the worlds.”

It looked like Galadriel was on the verge of falling back into her memories. “The man was a soldier in the King’s army.” She continued.

Robin tried to remember what she knew about the history and guessed the King must have been Karl XII.

Again Galadriel went deep into her thoughts. She looked troubled, but after sitting silent for a while she continued, “It is not bragging if I say he was dazzling and a nice man, and I loved him. But the day came when he was needed in the war. I still remember how it felt the moment he left the cottage and me. I stood and saw his footsteps in the mud and didn’t know if I had seen him for the last time,” she got quiet for awhile.

“And the years went by. I tried to become a maid at the farm. I toiled from early morning until late at night. He didn’t come home even when the war was over. I walked there yearning and yearning, the longer he was away, the more I wanted to go back to Valinor. At the time I had forgotten how I got to your world and what sacrifice there had been made to not disturb the balance.” She paused again.

Robin sat silently, waiting for her to continue and tell more about the differences.

“Since I didn’t see any way back and it seemed my man would not come back, I began to have forbidden thoughts. In that time it wasn’t respectable for women to travel alone, if I had been able. Due to a promise that had been made for me to live in your world, I couldn’t travel any further either. So in one way I was trapped in the cottage and its surroundings. I had some yearning I did not understand, and then one day another man came who also had been alone for a long time.” Galadriel swallow and let her head down.

“So you two became friends?” said Robin. “Did you get married?”

“That was impossible. How would that look? I was already married. And he didn’t want to be married, either. He didn’t want to tie himself down, he said. Because he knew how the females were that he was acquainted with, he said.”

“I think he seems rotten,” said Robin distinctly.

Galadriel looked up. “Rotten? What does that mean?”

“Mean/nasty,” said Robin. “Evil, as you say.”

“Yes, maybe he was. But he was a handsome man.”

“That I would care about,” said Robin.

“I know I handled it badly. It was a shame, what I did. And he went and disappeared as a hare you feed at your door. I never knew if he would turn up again. But there he stood, smelling of the wilderness and fire. He stayed for a few days and then he was gone. I often take walks and think about him a lot. I think I might have fallen in love with him too.”

“How could you do that after what he did?” asked Robin.

Galadriel gave her a searching look. “Don’t you understand that?” she said. “But you are perhaps too young. You have probably never loved someone.”

“Sure I have. But he is nice. I believe that at least.”

Galadriel didn’t listen. She had lowered her eyes again. “Then I got into an accident,” she said. “It was inescapable that I would fall from grace.”

“What do you mean? Fell from grace?”

Galadriel’s cheeks flushed with color. Robin thought it looked like the delicate roses that grow along one of the walls at the cottage. “I shouldn’t talk about this with you. You are too young for it.”

“You have promised to tell me,” reminded Robin her irritably. 

“Yes,” said Galadriel. “I meant that I got with child.”

“Because you had sex with each other,” Robin filled in. “Of course I understood that you had done it.”

Galadriel gave her a surprised look. “Alas we went to bed together,” she said and the ‘roses’ were visible again. Then she didn’t say anything more.

The birds were singing in the meadow, and Robin eagerly waited for what she would tell her next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Manulô – marshy ghost


	14. Chapter 14

Galadriel had hid her face in her hands and started weeping. Robin didn’t know what to do.

“Please, Galadriel, don’t cry,” she prayed. “You do not need to tell. I’m sorry that I continually ask.”

“No, no,” said Galadriel. “I will not stay silent about it.”

Robin slowly raised her hand and stroked Galadriel's hair. It was soft and felt very real.

Galadriel wiped the tears away and continued: “The first months it was not visible, but then one day, when I was about to take a receptacle from a shelf, the housewife looked strong at me and said: ‘I think Lisa got round around her middle.’ She sounded really mean in the voice.”

“Why did she call you Lisa?”

“That was my name then. I had to take that when I passed into your world. Galadriel is my true elven name. I changed it back when I come back as I wanted to forget the time I was away.”

Both went silent and pondering in their own thoughts. Robin did understand the way to have another name as she so often called herself something else. 

She came to think of Greenwood. Hadn’t Galadriel and himself called him with a different one. ‘What was it?’ After a moment she remembered it, Calla Palustris. 

Robin couldn’t refrain from asking about him. “Galadriel, you and Greenwood called him Calla Palustris and didn’t you say it was one of his names, does he have more?”

“Oh, little one, I might have mentioned that, though I don’t know if I’m the right one to tell you…” She looked far into the wood. “As I said he is part Edhellô and his other part is of an elven race too. His father is the King of Mirkwood and comes from what is called Silvan elves, which means ‘wooded’ or as they also are called east-elves. Greenwood got his names of both his parents, and because of that he is going under several names.”

“Do you mean he has more than one?”

“Yes, he has. Calla Palustris is from his mother and his father actually named him Legolas, which means ‘green leaf’. When he is in his shape of Edhellô he prefers to call himself Greenwood or even Missne. Please, do not mention I told you.” The last bit she sounded uncertain, as if she wondered if she had done the right thing.

“I won’t,” Robin tried to melt the information and it had woken up some more questions. “Why did he choose to call himself Greenwood?”

“As you know the forest here is Greenwood. He simply took that, as it also is in the meaning of his Silvan name. When he is in the periods of his second self he often wants to believe he owns the forest.”

“What does his father say about it?”

“Thranduil is easily weakened when it is about his son, as he was of Rharaniel, Calla’s mother. They can both wrap him around their little fingers, so he can’t do anything about it.”

“He also said that he often is mistaken as a man if you are a she and a woman if you are a he? How can that be possible?”

Now Galadriel smiled. “That is one of the mysteries of an Edhellô. They are neuter.”

“What?” In a short amount of time Robin had heard so much she could barely understand everything and didn’t know what Galadriel was telling her.

“You can say he has no sex and then he can snare anyone, which makes him a lot easier to drown people. You do tend to trust or fall for one of the other sex easier.” 

“Ooh.” Robin wanted to ask more, but didn’t dare.

She didn’t know if it was of her understanding some of Greenwood she thought she could feel a cold tremor go over her back. Robin looked around her and Galadriel wondering if she was only imagining it. The atmosphere in the meadow was suddenly one of unease.

Her unspoken question reached Galadriel.

“It is a Thind Mân,” said the woman. “You feel when they are close. We stay here. We do not need to fear it, as long we do not say ‘yes’ to anything it says. Best not say anything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edhellô –fen elf
> 
> Thind Mân – Grey spirit


	15. Chapter 15

“It is so right, so right my dear.” A stately figure in grey was suddenly standing in front of them. It looked like a male person, and he would have looked dangerous if he hadn’t had such an ingratiating expression in his long, thin face. Everything about him was grey: the coat was thundercloud grey, the hair was lead grey and the face had the same color as light granite.

“I beg affectionately the ladies forgiveness for disturbing the fascinating story. A highly moving little story, if I can say my own opinion, humble though it is. I likewise have to greet the young lady – I mean the _very_ young lady - welcome to King Ag’s forest,” he did a deep, slow bow and then righted, smiling.

“This forest isn’t owned by anyone,” said Robin ill-mannered. “And who is that Ag?”

“His majesty King Ag of Lô, our grandiose and adored leader, that has built the wonderful and powerful city ‘Greyhunger’,” he bowed slightly again. His eyes were very light and particularly empty. 

“And, who wants to draw sorrow and shadows over the forest,” said Galadriel.

“Not at all, not at all. His only wish is to come with new laws that will make the life easier for us all. His only wish is that you shall feel safe. In ‘Greyhunger’ no one shall feel uncertain and unwanted. There is a place for everyone. Even you, my highly enchanting Galadriel, can enjoy of that safety and solidarity that is and will always be in our beautiful city. Even if his majesty, in return, respectfully asks for a little gift…”

“Which gift?” Robin said ill mannered.

“Your fantasy,” Galadriel answered. “Everything you have left of dreams and wishes, songs, love and yearning. If you give him that, you become one of his subjects; a shadow without memories and will.”

“My lovely Galadriel,” said the figure mildly, “you among any would need your yearning relief. You among any need to forget your horrible memories. I thought I heard a sad song a little while ago. Was it you that sang that?”

May she not say ‘yes’, thought Robin. Galadriel kept silent.

“You will come on better thoughts eventually,” the Thind Mân resumed. “But let me introduce myself for the young lady, something I regret I have failed to do. I have the honor to be named Agel Arágel, a highly venerable and impressive name as his majesty, the merciful King Ag of Lô has given me, because I am one of the best persuaders. I have uncontestable honor of having persuaded not less than fifty-eight miserable, wandering creatures to come and find refuge in Ag’s halls,” his thin hands flew out in a sweeping gesture. Then he fixed his gaze on Robin. He stared a long time, and Robin stared back, though she felt smaller and smaller. Galadriel took her hand in hers. 

“My lovely little friend,” said Agel Arágel smoothly to Robin, “you don’t look happy at all. You look quite the reverse, ultimately forsaken and sad. You could say it looks like no one loves you. Am I right?”

“You deceiver you,” said Galadriel. “Besides is she among us on a visit, so you can’t harm her.”

“Harm?” Agel lift his eyebrows. “Who talks about harm? Not meee. No, we shall doubtless be friends, she and I. But…” – and he looked at Robin again – “we two shall have to talk to each other another time when the enchanting Galadriel isn’t with us, as she interrupts and interferes in a highly ill-mannered way. Am I wrong?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thind Mân – Grey spirit


	16. Chapter 16

Robin was on the way to say yes, but caught herself in the last second.

Agel Arágel swept his coat closer around himself and bowed again. “Then I have to say goodbye in all kindness,” he said. “Or, as I rather should say, be seeing you, if I could be so bold? May our way paths again.” He bowed again and disappeared like smoke in the wind in through the trees.

“He didn’t seemed that terrible dangerous,” said Robin.

“Not now. But wait until you have said ‘yes’ to any of his questions. Then he gets big as a thundercloud. I know. I have seen it happen. But I have never again seen Caladhiel, who said ‘yes’ to him. She let herself be persuaded.” Galadriel looked serious at Robin. “Promise me that you are careful. I do not know if they can harm you. They practice witchcraft and have gone astray, so they do not ‘listen’ to our laws anymore. Please do not let yourself be deceived. They are deceitful and can disguise themselves.”

“I managed, surely! Why did he use so ridiculous words?”

“He spoke persuasion language,” said Galadriel. She rose and shook her slender body. “Phew, it smells of Thind mân.”

When Robin took time she noticed a thin smell of mould disturbing the meadowsweet smell.

“Come,” said Galadriel. ”We go towards the wood.” And they walked in through the trunks, where lily of the valley, a small flower of light yellow, spread stars on the ground. But Robin didn’t think on how the wood looked. She only wondered how it had gone for Galadriel with the timber man and the baby and the soldier.

“Do you want to continue to tell your story?” she careful asked. “How did it go?”

“How did the story go?” Galadriel bend her neck forward so her hair covered her profile.

“Yes, when the housewife noticed you where pregnant?” said Robin.

“She didn’t say anything more that day,” Galadriel began. “But I was scared, very scared. And when I sat in the cottage that evening, alone, I remembered I had heard about a woman that had gone out in the forest to pick berries, and she bore a child too. There in the wood she saw a bear and started to run with all the power she had; she couldn’t stop running she was so scared. In the end she was so tired so she fell. She lay there a long time and was in pain. She gave birth there, and the child was dead.”

Robin swallowed. Galadriel didn’t meet her eyes.

“I went out and did the same. I mean that I went out and ran until I fell. But it didn’t help. A few days later the timber man came and he was furious and he told me what to do. He said he knew a wise woman, and she could take the child away if I paid. I took everything I had saved and went to her. She gave me a brew that pushed the child out. I buried it under a spruce. Then the time went on and on, but the timber man didn’t come back.” 

Robin couldn’t help but interrupt her: “Why did you have to kill the baby?” she asked.


	17. Chapter 17

“Don’t you understand?” said Galadriel. “If I had gone full time with it I wouldn’t be able to stay in the area. I would have needed to wear a scarf that said I was a whore. No one would have wanted to talk to me, I would have been driven from the farm. I wouldn’t be able to go to church. I would have been an outcast of the society, condemned to stand there with the shame forever. That was how it was in that time.” She stretched her hand to support Robin, as if like she had been about to loose her footing.

“It was something wicked that I’ve done.” she said. “Then there was my heritage…” she went silent as to really find the best way to tell Robin so she understood. “The special looks we elves have. It would have been high risk because the child would have taken after me, especially my ears. Then I didn’t know it. I have learned it later as that I not only committed a crime in your world, but also in ours.” 

She had stop walking as it was all too heavy to talk about. Robin wanted to ask what she meant with the last statement. What crime she had made in this world when it was not even made here, but she felt she had asked too many question.

“Though it never left thoughts, ever. It might have felt better if the timber man had come and comforted me, but he never came. He had left me a pair of trousers to repair, though he never came for them. I went there in a haze, like I was sleeping in my day to day tasks. Then one day…” She got silent and looked deep into the wood. 

“One day the soldier came home,” she continued. “He was thin and totally empty in his eyes. He had walked by foot the whole way home from Russia. But he was kind and I was happy for the first time in a very long time, and everything would have been well, if not for the timber man's trousers in the chest. He found them one day. ‘Who does this belong to?’ he asked. I said it was his. I was scared. ‘Those aren’t mine,’ he said. ‘They smell of resin and smoke so it chokes you. You have had a man in my house, Lisa, a timber man.’ And I had to say it was true.” Galadriel got quiet. 

“What happen then?” Robin asked before she remembered she shouldn’t ask anything more. She pushed a dry branch to the side. They walked now on thick, light green moss that was soft under their feet.

“He killed me. He put the knife in me. He, that had always been so kind, turned into a madman. It went dark for me, but just for a short moment, because in the next moment I was standing there beside my body. I didn’t understand what happen. I saw how my body lay there bloody and my husband stood over it crying,” Galadriel had taken some of her hair and wound it round between her fingers. 

“I saw everything clearly, everything was so real, the bread on the stove, the spinning wheel, the rag-mat. I was so surprised that I wasn’t angry. Robert – my husband – was shaking my body and weeping. I tried to touch him, I spoke to him, but he didn’t notice anything. I felt light and strange. I felt that I couldn’t linger in the house. I open the door and went out. I was drawn to the forest, as I was taken by the wind.”

Galadriel turned a little to look in another direction before she stopped. She let out a deep sigh and Robin took her hand. She had a question she wanted to ask Galadriel, but didn’t know how she would put it.

“Galadriel… is it so when everyone dies? Do you raise and just leave the body behind you?” she finally asked. “Did you become a ghost?”


	18. Chapter 18

“Am I a ghost?” she smiled. “No my little friend, I’m not a ghost. As I told you earlier I’m a Noldor elf. If it had happened here I would probably be dead, but since it was in your world and my ‘fate’ was not to disappear yet, I came to something that we call ‘Mandos halls’ and was offered to continue to live here. It also depends on which specialties I have. They were given back to me when I was allowed to live.”

“But that wasn’t what you asked; I don’t know if it is the way you humans die.” Galadriel continue and a tiny wrinkle appeared between her eyes. “I don’t know and there has not been anyone to ask. Now I can’t go over and I find it hard to get close to where the words collide around the cottage.”

Around the trees it creaked, and Robin pressed herself close to Galadriel. They stood still and waited. Soon they saw three forms, which were coming closer to them. The tallest of them waved; and the sun flashed in his spectacles. Beside him walked a short person in a white dress and white hat, and behind them came a figure with long blond hair and green clothes. Robin didn’t think it was weird or unpleasant to meet Greenwood again.

“It is the ornithologist!” said Galadriel happy. “The bird watcher!” she waved. “And the other one in white is Ticka, the mushroom fairy.” 

“Has she also _instincts?_ ” asked Robin.

Galadriel smiled. “Yes, but not as Greenwood. She protects the mushrooms in the wood. When the Hrávemat[1] comes and wants to eat them, she changes them so they look like dead leaves.”

“Mae govannen[2] , Galadriel!” shouted the bird watcher. “Howdy doody?”

He was close so that Robin could see him quite clear, though he was little blurred. On his mouse-colored hair sat a black beret, on his nose he had a pair of round spectacles, and he was wearing a checked vest, white shirt and a pair of sagging trousers. Everything looked rather worn. He was thin and looked like a crane in flight as he glided to them with long steps. Greenwood, who looked the same, gave Robin a rogue wink.

“Galadriel,” said the bird watcher, “It has finally happened! He has awaked! The sleeper has woken and we shall meet to listen to him!” his eyes glimmered. “And it was in the last moment, you would say.”

Galadriel shine up. “Has he said anything yet?”

“No, he waits until we are gathered. I heard it from the elkgirl; she rides around and brings the word about it. Come, it is best we get a move on. I mean that we need to hurry. This way everyone!” He headed off in through the trunks of the trees, and they followed.

Robin felt miserable, because she didn’t know if it was okay for her to come.

Greenwood, who walked beside her, said; “You should not be sad because he did not greet you. He only has eyes for Galadriel.” 

“Odd,” said Robin. “I thought that everyone was in love with _you_.”

Greenwood looked troubled. “I think it is a bit strange,” he agreed. “But he is not my type and neither is not Galadriel, so that does not matter.”

“What does your type look like?” asked Robin.

“Little more like me,” said Greenwood. Robin become happy, because she was a little like Greenwood, she thought. At least they had the same hair color and were about the same height. 

“But if you drown everyone you like, you have to be very lonely in the end,” said Robin.

Greenwood didn’t answer that, instead said Ticka, the mushrooms fairy: “He is incorrigible. We are starting to think there is something wrong with him.” 

He turned quickly around: “Just because you are both sanctimonious and dumb does not mean everyone has to be,” he hissed. They had fallen behind Galadriel and the bird watcher, who held each others hands.

Ticka looked irritated. “Now we shall not argue,” she said old-fashioned. “But sometimes I wonder if it would not be good for Greenwood to be a little _grey_.”

Greenwood stopped dead. His eyes were black as the night.

“Do you understand what you are saying?” he burst out. “I have noticed how you have changed the latest time. You, for example do not like those who sing more beautiful than you. You can not enjoy the meadow fairies dance, only because they dance better than you. Ticka, little one, you have to be careful! Because when you start to become envious and self-absorbed, that is when the Thind mân[3] can best persuade you. Maybe you have spoken a lot with them the latest time? You shall not joke about them, because one day they will come and get you. And I am not one that will miss you!”

Ticka looked nervous. “It is probably best if we start walking again, or we will not have time to catch up the others,” she said. 

Greenwood started walking, but continued talking. “It just so happens that not everyone is alike,” he said “Think how sad it would be if it were so; then I would be exactly like you and then you would not be able to dislike me; _that_ would be sad? And if I happen to be different than you, it can be so that I actually _want_ to be that.” He turned to Robin and continued: “By the way you should not talk about things you do not understand. You wanted to see how I live. There _is_ actually a garden there, though I might have exaggerated a little with the silver hall and colonnade. If that bloodless elf had come and disturbed –“

He was interrupted by the bird watcher and Galadriel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 Hrávemat - eaters  
> 2 Mae govannen – well met  
> 3 thind mân – grey spirit


	19. Chapter 19

The man and Galadriel started to sing:

“The sleeper has woken  
from his sleep  
The words we have missed  
Shall his tongue speak 

Manulô shall run  
Shadow shall vanish   
Greyhunger shall demolish  
\- so we will flourish!”

At the last sentence they started to laugh. 

“I think I have to change a line or two, so it is more solemn,” said the bird watcher. Then he saw seriousness on the faces of Greenwood and Ticka. “I heard angry voices behind me,” he said. “Whatever you argued about, you can continue another day. Today we have a reason to be happy.” He suddenly lifted his eyebrows, because he had spotted Robin. “Who are you?” he asked. “I have certainly not met you before.”

“I’m Robin.” said Robin low.

“Robin Hood,” Galadriel filled in.

The bird watcher wrinkled his forehead. “Weird. I think I’ve heard that name before.” He looked intensely on Robin, but at that moment a sound was heard from inside the forest, and he lifted his head like a dog and listened. “Hear!” he said. “It is the stock dove!” He cupped his hands around the mouth and imitated the sound, a husky ko ko-o ho-o, that at once was answered. “Come!” he said, Robin’s strange name forgotten. “Still there is a long way left to the sleepers dwelling-place. And we have to be there before it gets dark, before the Hrávemat and the iaur* and all other helch* creatures dare to get out.” He hastens his steps, and they follow him deeper into the wood.

After some time Robin began to tire of the long and hasty walking. Galadriel noticed it and lifted her up. Robin thought it was peculiar that the little light woman, who was so thin, could carry her. Robin too was thin, but she was at least twelve years old. The bird watcher offered to carry her, but she didn’t think she knew him well enough. The only thing she worried about was if Greenwood would think she was a coward, who was too weak to walk so fast. But he didn’t seem to care.

“I hope you aren’t… hungry?” said Galadriel and sounded like hunger was something unusual.

“No.” Robin felt the medallion cold against her ear and remembered that she hadn’t learned what it contended. It would have to wait until another time.

“We are soon there,” said the bird watcher. He stopped and put his hand over his eyes. “What is that?”

“Where?” Greenwood stared in through the spruces that were so old that some of the branches were without needles and covered by silver white lichen.

The bird watcher lifted his binoculars to his eyes. Then he shook his head. “I am probably only imaging. Anyway he can’t be out this time of the day. The sun hasn’t gone down yet. But I think I saw a moon rock flip near the hillside.”

Galadriel shivered and hugged Robin tighter to her.

“At least there are five of us; that is to our advantage,” she said.

“The man in the moon rock is an Edledhron* - recluse, like you Greenwood,” said Ticka. “Maybe you should get together? Though then you would have to hurry to drown your victims, before he takes care of them himself. But then they probably sink like rocks.”

“That is not the whole explanation,” said Greenwood. “But we have to be happy as long as she does not say his name and call him here. Then she can get the opportunity to show her courage.”

They continued walking during a sullen silence, though they should be happy. The stock dove called several times from somewhere. Robin thought it sounded ominous. Who was the man in the moon rock? What did he do to those he caught? But something told her this wasn’t the right place to find out. Instead, she put her head against Galadriel’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Before she knew it she had fallen asleep, lulled by the soft rhythm of the woman’s floating steps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> iaur – ancient [uråldriga]  
>  helch – cold [köld]  
>  Edledhron – ‘hermit’ (a person who is in exile)


	20. Chapter 20

”Wake up, little one!”

Robin didn’t recognize the soft voice at first. She knew it wasn’t her mothers. Then she noticed softness encircling her and she opened her eyes. Galadriel met her look and smiled at her like you do to a very little child. 

“You look like you thought I was a giantlittle,” said Robin.

Galadriel laughed. “Giantlittle?” she said. “How can something be that? I know only one giant, that’s true but he is not little. I haven’t seen him, but those that have say he is tall as a full grown spruce.” 

“Almost, at least,” interposed Greenwood.

“Have you seen him?” asked Robin.

“Yes, a long time ago. But that I can tell you about another time, because we are here, you see.”

Robin looked around. They stood in front of an old ruin, which was in so many pieces that almost only the ground was left. Inside the low wall, flowers and grass grew in the broken flag stones, which once had been a floor. An ancient oak shadowed the stones with its thick crown. In the shifting leaf shadows stood a gathering of beings that greeted the newly arrived with waves and joyous acclamations.

Galadriel let Robin down to the ground, and then all five went in between what remained of the two doorposts. A short woman in a clear red dress came to them.

“Vedui’ il’er ” she said.

“Mae Govannen, Fragaria,” said Galadriel. ”Has he spoken, or does he wait?”

“He waits until more have arrived.” answered Fragaria, who was surrounded by a wild strawberry fragrance. Robin supposed she was a fairy and wondered if she watched over the forest berries, like Ticka watched over the mushrooms.

Fragaria put out her hand to Robin. “You, I have not seen before. You come from another dimension,” she said. “Come so I can introduce you to the others. What is your name?”

“Robin,” she hesitated. “Robin Hood.”

“I could swear that I’ve heard that name before,” mumbled the bird watcher behind her. But Fragaria didn’t listen to him. She put her hands on Robin’s shoulders and turned her towards those that were standing in the shadows. “Rubus, Elrond, Filipendula, Thranduil, Picea, Haldir, Convallaria, Celeborn and everyone else! This is Robin Hood, and I am sure she will be a big help. It shows in her eyes that she is both brave and ingenious”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edledhron – ‘hermit’ (a person who is in exile)  
>  Vedui’ il’er – Greetings everyone


	21. Chapter 21

The praise embarrassed Robin, even though she was filled with warmth and pride. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Ticka had a very sullen face. Greenwood and the mushroom fairy were standing as far away as possible. When Robin had been introduced, she went over and talked to Greenwood. She thought it was about time someone spoke nice with him, because he really looked alone and disassociated from everyone. Just like she knew she used to do when a lot of people crowded around her.

_‘Why isn’t he going over to his father’_ she thought. But, as she had promised Galadriel earlier she wouldn’t say anything, she didn’t ask him. Instead she asked, “Where _is_ the sleeper, exactly?”

“He is under the earth. Do you see the two guards over there?” Greenwood pointed to a remote corner of the ruin, where two tall people covered in lichen grey cloaks and spinouts helmets stood. Because they were so light and stood so dead calm, she hadn’t noticed them before. Their beards were so long that they had wound them round and round around their necks. Robin wondered what they guarded, because in between them it she only saw a wild brier.

“Behind the bush is the entry to the Sleepers chamber.” Greenwood said.

“What is this building; I mean what was it before it fell into pieces?”

“A church, they say.” Greenwood didn’t seem to be familiar with the word. “Not far from here are the remains of several stone walls. There was a whole village here, but every one died in a plague.” He looked satisfied, something like Maria when she told ghost stories.

“How long ago?” Robin asked and looked worriedly around, like pieces of bones were left in the moss and flowers.

“It happen during the fourteenth century,” said the bird watcher, who had come up to them. “Then the Black Death went over the world. People died like flies you could say. The death carriage rattled through cities and villages; the diseased clothes were burned in the streets and ownerless pets strolled around closed houses.”

Robin thought he sounded like a teacher when he told about it.

“The people thought the plague were a punishment from God, so they went in big troops through the kingdom and prayed to the God and pioused themselves. They were called Scourges and Castigates.”

“ _Pioused_ themselves?” said Robin. “What is that?”

“They hit themselves with scourges and ripped out their hair and tormented themselves. Sometimes they made big heavy wood crosses and took them with them, and when they walked they sang anthems to God and virgin Maria.”

Robin could see in her mind how the Scourges haul themselves forward longest a muddy road. The fog lay thick over the untilled lands, mixed with the smoke from the village, where the polluted belongings were burned.

“Though,” said Galadriel, “It says there was a lot of happiness; the strange joy you can feel when you know that you can die tomorrow and do not need to worry anymore. It is said that they danced and played and let all the sorrow fly. Maybe it is true.” She went silent a short moment. “Though, that was in your world. It was slightly different here. We were hit by it too, but not as widespread and devastating. We did lose a lot of people though thanks to a few abilities not every race was affected. Working together I think we were able to exterminate the plague faster and the source.”

“How could they live right in the middle of the forest?” Robin asked. “Didn’t they have fields and roads?”

“Everything has become overgrown.” said Greenwood. “It is the woods it takes back the ground that the people had gained. The pines slowly walk in the field, linneor throw their tendrils over the earth, seeds fall and grow. Aspen and ashes push through the high; all the small and green lives get closer to the walls and push themselves through stones.” 

“And mushrooms grow,” said Ticka, who had become curious and came forward to them.

“How did it go for those that died in the plague?” asked Robin. “Do they go around in the wood like you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vedui’ il’er – Greetings everyone (actually in previous chapter)


	22. Chapter 22

Galadriel hesitated. “We have seen them, though they will not speak to us. Their cries are deplorable and they hide their visage. One night I thought I heard them sing, but maybe it only was the wind.”

“Do you think it is God’s punishment that the plague came?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to believe that.” said the bird watcher.

“You never know what the Eru wants. His ways are hidden even for the wisest.” Galadriel added. 

Robin wanted to ask Galadriel and the bird watcher and the others if _they_ believed that God existed, but she didn’t dare. She thought Eru sounded something like God, and wondered if that was this world’s creator. She wasn’t sure of how it came to be that Galadriel and the bird watcher were living there, and if they had died in her world. If they had died, it was obvious that none of them had come to heaven. If this wasn’t heaven? Though in heaven you couldn’t have any Hrávemat and thind mân and Manulô, and would there be any Greenwood? With out them heaven would be very boring, she thought and threw a glance on the Edhellô, who stood deep in his own thoughts. His dark blue eyes was glossy, and he looked little taunting. She thought he wouldn’t be allowed into heaven.

“Look over there!” said Ticka. “Now arrives the elkgirl!”

Robin turned around and was amazed. Between the tall trees came a huge elk; one that could frighten her and her mother out of life during one of their walks to collect berries. On the animals back sat a little, little girl with black hair. When she got closer Robin saw that she was golden brown in her skin and her eyes were big and dark. She had a wide, happy mouth and funny high eyebrows.

“Aaye Alcesina!” shouted Fragaria. “Will the Oromë come?”

The elkgirl shook her head. With a few strides the elk come to the ruin, and the girl took a jump from his back. He turned and disappeared into the forest, and the girl came to the waiting people.

“Tirithdîr is too busy,” she said with light voice to Fragaria. “There was a hurt hare which needed his help. But he trusts you to let him hear the Sleepers message to him.”

“Of course,” said Fragaria a little disappointed. “Maybe we should go down to the chamber now, because I don’t think many more will come.” She gestured towards the others. They were mostly fairies and elves, but there were some creatures she hadn’t any name for.

Greenwood, who saw how Robin looked at them, put his hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “The brown is Ennor raug’s, those that looks like trees are Ents, those that looks like children are Peredhil – halflings, the small is Nogoth - Gnomes and some is Edan’s.”

These were all unknown words for Robin, but she felt now wasn’t the time to get it explained. Instead, she watched them. Some were dressed in cotton grass or wreaths of flowers, while some bore dresses like Fragarias or cloaks, tunics and other costumes. Some were naked and didn’t seem embarrassed. Strange, Robin didn’t get embarrassed either when she saw them; though she often felt uncomfortable when she saw a human naked. She remembered how embarrassed she had been when she saw the flasher in the city. But he had a strange look in his eyes, as if he hadn’t seen her. These naked beings that came from the meadows, fens and woods, had clear eyes and looked lithe and flexible.

When all had walked to the brier bush, the guards spoke with husky voices and said: “What do you have for business at the Sleeper’s dwelling place?”

Flagaria bowed, “We yearn to hear his voice.” she said.

“Big is his peace and wisdom. His dreams are bigger than the world,” said the guards in chorus.

“To disturb his peace gives us grief. But the danger we fear is close,” said Fragaria.

The Guards nodded and removed some of the brier branches. Then they lifted a moss covered stone, and a faint light rose from the earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word translation:
> 
> Hrávemat - eaters  
> thind mân – grey spirit  
> Manulô – marshy ghost  
> Edhellô – fen elf  
> Oromë – Lord of the forest (the name means Horn blower)  
> Ennor rags – earth creaturs - jordknytt


End file.
